What Worked and What Didn't-- Busy Halloween and NaNoWriMo

Part 1: Reflective Journal
Wow! That was a fast/busy week! With all the anticipated energy of Halloween and Trick-or-Treat nights and a few extra pep-assemblies thrown in for playoff season, it was BIZ-E! Then add in the beginning of NaNoWriMo and you have it! It's officially my favorite month of the year! Lovin' my job!

What DID work was taking a step back and realizing that some of the "heavier" tasks and topics I had planned for the week were simply not going to cut it. For example, in 8th grade we traded a week of in-depth work on foreshadowing for a day-by-day study of suspense filled Gothic poems. FUN!  "The Raven" by E.A. Poe, "The Bells" (also by Poe) and "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee" by Robert Service... helped make this holiday fun and educational for my students. 

What also worked was using time today (the day after Halloween) to finish bigger projects and use my established "WORD PLAY DAY" centers. We've only used them three times this year but the students really enjoy the time and play fairly.
The four "centers" I used each time (the students rotate through these every 10 minutes) are:

1. Computers or Nintendo DS Word Games
2. Blurt or Boggle (board games)
3. Slurp or Sentences (board games)
4. Dry Erase Pockets or Word Game magazines

What DIDN'T work was juggling too many "project-based" lessons in one week. The 8th grade literature students were working on Comic Strips, 8th grade Language Arts students were writing mysteries, 7th grade literature students were making puppets and performing scripts they created AND NaNoWriMo kicked-off!

Part 2: Teaching-wear (Week 6)
I didn't think it would happen so soon, but this week I actually had a "shoot...I'm getting tired of wearing skirts" moment. It passed. I still have a full closet's worth of skirts left to go!

<=Monday--I went full-out dress again. The day was oddly warm and the dress has cap sleeves. I definitely took the jacket off early!

My rating:  4  Comfortable and easy to move in, but NO pockets! 
:( 

<=Tuesday--This was one of the newer shirts I bought when I realized that I didn't have enough color or pattern to go with my drab colored skirts. I own this skirt in brown and a teal corduory. I think I wore it crooked all day! LOL!

My rating: 4 Versatile. 

<=Wednesday-- A Burberry skirt. Nope, not really, but the pattern is the same. I tend to stay away from straight patterns like this on skirts. Notice how wide it makes my hips look! (And they are wide...I just don't want to emphasize that!)
The top was a trick of mine to mix it up a bit. It has metal bits on it. (A preppy rocker look?)

My rating: 3 Although the skirt is comfortable and I like the style/cut, I don't like the way the pattern looks on me.

<=Thursday--HALLOWEEN! and "Hello-Kitty Thursday"! Image that! It was a two-for-one kind of day. The skirt is actually a plum (which helped the purple streaks in my hair show up!) I was incredibly comfortable in this skirt. I do wish it had pocket though. :( 

My rating:  4 I'll wear this one again for sure. It's light-weight yet warm. 

Time-to-Write Tuesdays-- It's a MYSTERY!

During the past two weeks, my students have been building background knowledge and researching details. Now it is time to bring it all together...

                              It's time to write a MYSTERY!

It all started one Tuesday in the computer lab... 
The students knew we were preparing for a new writing topic, but WHAT?

I simply told the students that they were to quickly find an informative website for THREE places of interest. I explained that these places could be places that they had been to before or places they would like to visit. Then, they were told to print only the first page of the website, hole punch the pages and slip them into their writing binders. I told them nothing else.

Nothing.

Their next clue came two days later... 
They were told to look over their pages and write a brief description of the three places that they chose. (I limited them by requiring 1/2 a page per place. Folding the paper in half before they started to write helped them see the "space" for writing.) At this point, they started to wonder, but thought they were writing research papers.

More clues came when they had to repeat the process, writing a 1/2 page for each destination, but changing the focus. All together, the students wrote three quick-writes about The Place, Things (found at the place) and People that they would meet at their chosen destinations.

Finally, I revealed that we were writing MYSTERIES! Wow, did that get them talking!

As the class discussed what happens in a mystery, they began to see that the places, things and people could all fit together like a big mix-and-match book by taking a few elements away.

On Monday, we watched an episode of Scooby Doo. I had discussed how a mystery can be as simple as Scooby Doo. By plotting and retelling, my students proved how the same elements we had discussed last week were evident in one basic cartoon.

Today, we finished our pre-writing. I handed them a simple graphic organizer with the key components: Main Characters, Suspects, Crime or Mystery, Clues (real and diversions) and the "Big Reveal" leading to the Outcome. (Actually, some started writing their first drafts today without this last step... I know they will complete the organizer for credit, but they couldn't help themselves and grabbed a computer to start tapping it out as the story materialized in their imaginations!)

The students are so excited! It makes me excited! (I believe that my NANOWRIMOs have found their topics!)

In the hallway, I set up an interactive "It's a Mystery" bulletin board for parent-teacher conferences and to tie-in with our lessons.

Throughout the next week, I plan to use the writings of Lemony Snicket, Blue Balliett and a few picture book authors to serve as models.

If you would like to try your hand at writing a mystery with your students or write one of your own you might want to purchase the new Pseudonymous Bosch's book, Write This Book: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery. It is a fabulous guide that isn't one of those expensive journals pretending to be a do-it-yourself books.

Turning Summer Readers into Seasoned Vets!

It's Thor's Day! Time to take a peek at the Reading Lessons in my classrooms...

As the primary conduit between my students and books, it's important to me to know my students, their reading histories, and their personal reading skills and levels of confidence.

In the first quarter, unfortunately, many of my preteen readers are picking up a book for the first time after a three month hiatus. I'm sure you've seen a graphic like the one I'm sharing from Perry Public Schools.

These "summer" students (averaging 0% during the summer) may not have read anything deeper than the description of a double-cheese on a restaurant menu. So it's my job, a daunting task at times, to dig through their interests and backgrounds to find what works and what doesn't for each and everyone of these students.

Today, I worked with a student in my RtI small group. She struggles with fluency but is very motivated to read and she is not afraid to talk about what she likes and doesn't like. Although she started out with Andrew Clements and similar realistic, middle-grade fiction, I could tell that they weren't calling her back for more.

That's when I directed her to scan the backs of ghost stories and mysteries...

There are dozens of great mystery writers and engaging "spooky" series for middle school students available. Mary Downing Hahn appeals primarily to the girl readers in my classes, but Peg Kehret, the 39 Clues series and Patrick Carman attracts all readers!

She choose The Legend of Ghost Dog by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. I'm happy to say; she's hooked on reading!

Of course, there are also a handful of junior high students who know exactly what they want to read and are voracious readers. They have their favorite series, author's they crave and genres that they gravitate towards.
For these readers, I provide a "shopping list" that they can fill out that will help me find new books for them.

I utilize my local libraries (and the lending library systems)! Once you've established a good relationship with them--you've returned books on time, in good condition, and share your knowledge to help the library out too--you will find that your local library can be your best outlet to keep these thirsty readers fed. (They have great library sales too!)

I have plans for the student I worked with today, though. (And she's not aware of it yet!)

As much as every reader struggles with it, we tend become comfortable within that "favorite". In the '80s I remember reading a dozen or so Danielle Steel and Stephen King books. The patterns were predictable and the characters were easy to imagine.

To grow as a reader, students have to get outside of this comfortable space. This is the hardest part of my job. I have to "shake it up" a bit in their comfortable reading world. That's why it is so important to have a plethora of books available.

One of the best ways to "sell" a student on a book that they may not have considered reading before is to let the students "advertise" to each other. Book talks, chats, reviews, "speed dates" etc are valuable ways to get the word out about an interesting book.

Recently, a student in one of my 7th grade classes demonstrated how Odysseus fooled and then stabbed Polymepheus. He learned this from reading Mary Pope Osborne's series. Another student read the chilling moment from Neal Shusterman's Unwind in which the main character, Connor, is asking, pleading, not to be unwound. (Beware teachers! Letting students share what they are reading can create wait-lists!)

Keep these things in mind as you cultivate a class of readers:
    1. Making the right match for the right student takes work. As the "model" reader for your students, they will look to you for reading advice.
    2. Stay current and read books at their levels. Your knowledge is invaluable!
    3. Read aloud and share your feelings about the books you personally enjoy and those that are not the right fit.
    4. Most of all, let students know that you are listening to them. If they like horses and you don't have any horse themed books in your class library, ask around! Find some and share them.

Raising a nation of readers will take time and hard work, but if you stock up on books and share those you love, soon, you'll find that your once "Summer Readers" will become "Seasoned Vets"!